A class in Southeast Portland's Sellwood neighborhood puts the health benefits of yoga within easier reach of overweight women

View full sizeKAREN MILLIGAN/SPECIAL TOTHE OREGONIANStudents do the tree pose in the Yoga for the Larger Woman class at the Yoga Project in Sellwood.

Janet Wieneke has been overweight all of her life. She says her parents put her on a diet when she was only a month old. Since then, she's been on and off Weight Watchers, had two intestinal bypasses and couldn't find an exercise routine that worked for her.

Until about five years ago, that is, when she discovered Yoga for the Larger Woman, taught by Vilma Zaleskaite at the Yoga Project, a yoga studio in Sellwood.

"I saw the class described in a catalog, and I thought, 'I wouldn't stand out so much. I'd be with my own kind,'" says the 53-year-old Wieneke, who lives in Northeast Portland.

Wieneke got hooked on the class and has been going once or twice a week ever since. She has also developed a home yoga practice, and has graduated to a more advanced Level One class at the Yoga Project.

"The mental benefits have probably been as great as the physical," Wieneke says of Yoga for the Larger Woman. "My back doesn't hurt anymore, I heal more quickly, I'm not as depressed as I used to be, and I'm more confident."

Other women in the class, who range from overweight to morbidly obese, report similar benefits. Some have lost weight, others have gained flexibility, and all report that they feel more comfortable with their bodies and better about themselves in general.

Zaleskaite, originally from Lithuania, has been teaching yoga for more than a dozen years. She has studied both the Iyengar and the Hatha yoga traditions, but said her real teachers have been her students.

After working with seniors for a couple of years and learning to modify poses for those with limited mobility, Zaleskaite got the idea to teach a class geared specifically toward larger women. Her goal was to create a welcoming environment in which curvy women who may be out of shape wouldn't feel intimidated.

"Anyone can do yoga," she says. "It's more mindset than body size."

Zelaskaite uses bolsters, straps, blocks and other props to help her students personalize poses such as side angle, downward dog and legs up the wall. Meditation, self-massage and breathing exercises are also incorporated into each class to further the mind-body connection at the core of any yoga practice.

"Yoga is about how aware you are of what's happening in your body," Zelaskaite says. "You sharpen your awareness by using your body as a tool. When you step away from your (yoga) mat, you take that awareness with you."

Zelaskaite believes that as an individual becomes more committed to a yoga practice, she makes healthier choices and brings her life into balance.

She was able to test this theory over the course of the last 12 months, when she guided four students from the Yoga for the Larger Woman classes on a yearlong project titled "Living in My Body." Each woman agreed to develop a home yoga practice, starting with five minutes a day and working up to a full hour seven days a week, and to blog four times a week about the experience.

All of the women who completed the project reported that it was transforming, helping them regulate their moods, their sleep -- and for one woman, her diabetes.

Typical of their responses is this excerpt from Linda Benton's final blog entry: "My body craves the freedom and movement that yoga has facilitated. The simple gift of movement is the most powerful gift. I went from struggling to walk a few blocks to walking at least a mile per day. I've come a long way. I'm healthier and more confident."

Even women new to the class said the benefits are palpable. Connie Barr, who owns Magical Creations Boutique in Northeast Portland, a shop catering to the same plus-size women Zaleskaite's class serves, started attending Yoga for the Larger Woman classes just a couple of months ago.

"In this short period of time, I already have better balance, greater stamina and more flexibility. I thought yoga was for young thin things. Now I'm of the mind that yoga is for all sorts of people and it can be altered to fit your needs," Barr says.

In addition to the physical changes she has experienced, Barr said that Zelaskaite's compassion and humor keep her going back week after week.

Wieneke, too, appreciates the lighter side of a heavy subject.

"I like to say to my friends, 'I'm going to my yoga class,'" Wieneke says. "I like being able to do things that 'normal' people do. Fat people need exercise, too."